I won’t ask how long it took, but one of these days we really need a ranking of all the “don’t ask me how long this took cause I’ll cry” and which ones took the longest.
We should send a request to that Indigo go get that data since she is OSP’s general tech expert and somewhat broadly managerical in OSP. She might be able to get a straight answer out of Red or at least be able to make a coherent translation for us. Indigo and Red could both object, in which case throw me under the bus and I will whimper piteously at them to save the rest of you from their righteous ire.
I took them to be the harbormaster, or possibly a representative of a shipping company, that’s who Erin would have such a conversation with IRL, at least, in a less-medieval, more early-industrial society like Aurora.
Wait, what *is* the name of the civilization here? Or the greater region? I’m presuming that with so many isolated continents, there will be multiple different civilizations, at least since the deep caverns became impossible to traverse. Also because actual living gods are integrated into local governments… there don’t seem to be nation-states as we are familiar with them, except perhaps for city-states, but we haven’t yet met anyone who seems actually, you know, “foreign.”
It’s possible that, since most modern species first developed within the caves, and only emerged within recorded history, that all Aurora’s surviving civilizations have a common origin, and have not yet differentiated to the level we’re familiar with in the real world.
But didn’t the Twins make a ton of new species since then? I guess they might not have had time to create their own culture before joining the bigger already built society
If Zuurith is the city I think it is on Erin’s map in chapter 8, it’s been a pretty long time since then. Certainly a couple days (and given how long days can last in this comic, that’s a very long time).
It took the gang almost a week to reach Zuurith from Gleicann’s forest. I suspect it took a similar amount of time for the Floof Squad to reach Argist.
As a long-time tabletop rpg referee, I love your city map and the geography of your world! I also love that the local climate is getting in the way of an easy sea voyage for the Floof Squad.
Ah, for just one time
I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin
Reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line
Through a land so wild and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea
Stan Rogers’ song sung by male voices is very moving when listening to it, If you google it you can listen to it yourself (yes Stan Rogers Northwest Passage) very haunting and mournful.
I also agree with @Jaq that the city is beautifully drawn in wonderful detail and somewhere I would want go and see myself. So I think ii was time well spent Red!
If you are not already aware of them, I would recommend The Longest Johns and El Pony Picador’s collaborations on the subject (under the delightful temporary name ‘The Longest Pony’ or otherwise.)
If you are already aware, that doesn’t make the song any less good. Go have a relisten.
Neat detail that the urban sprawl stretches furthest inland along the rivers and roads! Also time for Erin to ply his trade as the nautical equivalent of a snowplow!
Calm down, it just a bird’s eye view of the city, my panicked observer. No Dragons, Chimera or hostile spirits seen yet! (Gives @NoName a virtual friendly pat on the shoulder and hope @NoName does not flinch in reaction)
Oh no, I’m not worried about flying critters. It’s the hand of the author that terrifies me! Both Vash and The Storm got ganked shortly after we got a birds eye view of them. ANd Vash specifically was an “ask me how long this took”, and got ganked with extreme prejudice
Ah, a city!
And it’s not apparently run by an immortal god-king interested in squeezing the freedom out of it’s inhabitants to ensure ‘peace’ and ‘stability’!
Can’t wait for it to go up in flames as well, it’s starting to be trend.
So far I think the party is 2 – 0 on “cities destroyed after protagonist appearance”, counting Vash that is. Not sure the villages/towns they met along the way count as “cities set on fire by proximity to party”.
You know, this reminds me of some of my pen and paper campaigns.
The actual city design is quite beautiful! Those piers look absolutely *massive*, if this is a city of 100k or so, which means it takes an extraordinary amount of shipping or extraordinarily large ships. Reminds me a bit of how Nochet in Glorantha (RuneQuest: Glorantha pen and paper rpg) has a single dock that used to be foor Dragonships, that is ships made out of the (still living????) bodies of dragons the size of islands or mountains. Well, before they either got stranded or dove into the Underworld (to escape all the seas being ‘closed’).
Correct. We skipped Kev, which noticeably wasn’t circled like Zuurith, Argist, and Hollowsong, indicating it was just a minor stop. It probably escaped destruction by virtue of not being shown on page.
And while Windcrest wasn’t destroyed, it DID get it’s main source of income (wind from the Storm) removed, so I might argue the gang’s score is 2.5-0.5 for ‘cities destroyed’!
The ratio of physical city size to population size depends quite a bit on density and architecture. One has to take into consideration how much space people in the society need to live versus what they are comfortable with, everyone’s relative wealth, and how much space is ostentatiously wasted by the elite, or needed for non-residential use.
Also things like how much space is practically available, how many stories structures can safely have, how important any city walls are, what building materials can be used… there are a *lot* of variables.
Certainly! Wasn’t talking about that though, it’s too difficult to judge the individual building size Vs likely inhabitants.
The piers were just very eye-catching, being in the center of the panel and look massive.
I’d imagine it’s just artistic license, which is fine, but got reminded of other worlds where gigantic ships are a thing and thus similarly gigantic harbours are required on occasion.
Icebergs! If only there were ~3 people here with fire magic to melt them and at least one person willing to punch the icebergs very hard
also I wonder if 100 000 is a large population in Aurora or not? Argist almost looks too normal to have a god, but maybe Vash and Zuurith are just very eccentric
And frankly, Argist also looks to be bigger than Vash (noted to be small, but with outsized influence) and Zuurith, so yeah, there is definitely a city god for Argist.
City gods don’t manifest based on eccentriCITY (wahey), they manifest based on cultural identity. Vash was famously eccentric, Zuurith was famously not. I’m sured Argist has a god too, but they hopefully won’t cause trouble.
I believe the ice melting IS the problem. The ice is melting too fast for the ships to overcome, even with a possible wind or water mage. What might’ve been a calm opening now looks like a torrential outpour. At least, it is a big contributing factor.
I have a feeling that Kendal and Ged-post-Wizard-of-Earthsea would get along really well. Just sit them on a cliff somewhere overlooking Gont and let them talk about things
I have spent many incredibly peaceful, calming hours drawing detailed maps of some of my fantasy towns and villages. Maps that will almost certainly not be useful for the finished product. But they ground me and center me.
This, however, is not a map, but a bird’s-eye perspective illustration that has to both be convincing and fit the style of a larger work. I can see why drawing it would stress Red out.
Up to 5 pages and I’m betting bout’ twenty monopoly money, my only 2 minecraft diamonds from my survival world, and a pack of my brother’s cheese It’s.
I mean, they still need to actually SAIL the boat. Tess is the only party member they have who might have anything approaching actual nautical skill, and she can’t exactly do everything by herself! Especially since, y’know, there’s a REASON boats are avoiding this route right now.
Oh my god the shapes on that city…. god that must have been a NIGHTMARE. But it looks absolutely gorgeous, you did well Red!! 😀 But… ouhhh.. why does Erin look so sad? I mean, yeah the icebergs… But it can’t just be that.. Void dragon, probably… Poor guy.
I like that we start the chapter from Erin’s POV this time. He’s had solo scenes and scenes where he’s the primary character involved, but this one comes across differently. I read the opening “voice over” as more pensive than his original “Ima walk into this storm because I’m the only one who can” introduction. Heck, when was the last time anyone gave internal narration? Either way, he’s finally developed into someone with (a little more) humility. He asks if he can help and doesn’t get visibly upset when he’s told “no”. They’ll figure out a way around the iceberg issue, of course, but I think his attitude may be different this time. (Then again, hubris, so I may be speaking too soon.) But our boy’s growing up!
Also, their version of traveling light: Erin’s bag of holding (so infinity packing), Dainix’s crossbow, spear, and gear, Vash’s sword, the capes/ponchos on their backs, and an extraordinary amount of floof.
Anonymous Aurora Question #38: 1: WHY DO I LOVE ERIN SO MUCH EVEN IF HE’S NOT DOING ANYTHING EXCEPTIONALLY COOL RIGHT NOW?!?! 2: Now that I regained my composure: What city do you think of when you think about a big city with a port? I just automatically end up thinking of Naples or Amsterdam.
I may have been watching too much Sousou no Frieren recently, but we did just skip over a large swath of temperate planes and a city named Key. I had kind of been hoping that we would get to see the squad banter and bond and have a good, calm time together.
I haven’t written fanfiction in a long time, but it might be time to make my return if no one else will.
“Nestled in the harbor of the Crow’s-” NESTLED UPON THE CLIFFS THAT RISE FROM THE SWORD COAST, THE CITADEL OF CANDLEKEEP HOUSES THE FINEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE COLLECTION ON THE FACE OF FAERUN
Hate to break it to the “hit it with fire” folks, but anyone who could melt an iceberg fast enough to matter could almost certainly have just evaporated Tynan right out of existence…
Q38: Boston. Mostly because I spent way, way too many hours working on bathmetry data for its harbor and integrating it with LIDAR-based DEM datasets for the city.
Time to guess! What do you think will happen next!
A. They pay pirates to take them
B. They get in a pirate ship battle
C. The ship they take gets raided by pirates
D. They take a detour to the other port
E. They take the only boat that will go that way and end up castaways
F. They end up hijacking whatever boat they end up taking
G. They steal a boat from someone and become fugitives
H. They help anouther floof with sailing skills get their boat back from pirates and they agree to take them to Helm
I. Chimera Mom shows up
J. VD makes his appearance of the town
K. A Deus Ex Machina
L. A literal Deus Ex Machina
M. Paladens attack
N. Erin, in his hubris and or ego, freezes the ocean so people can cross
O. They punch a god in the face
P. They somehow end up on the run from the government for the most stupid reasons
Erin has pretty shocked face, and if it’s seasonal change that is causing the melting, I think Erin would know about it, so unless he is shocked at how long it’s taken to get here, I think that something else is going on. My guesses are that the jokes about global warming are correct, maybe a god is behind this that they can punch. Or, maybe his face has nothing to do with this news. Maybe VD is getting squirmy, or he spotted a dragon approaching, or he has seen a squadron of paladens approaching. IDK, something is going on here beyond seasonal change.
The fact that we don’t see Erin physically writing anywhere here opens up the tantalising possibility that he’s just been internally monologuing diary entries THIS WHOLE TIME like he’s planning his autobiography or something. Why does his mind work this way. Real Veronica Sawyer behaviour.
“On the corner between Main and Maple rests the Select Convenience corner store, easily identifiable by the faded sign behind the rain-streaked glass and the steady traffic of people in and out. It provides a vital role in the neighbourhood, supplying locals with bread, milk, newspapers, and the other necessities of everyday life. Locals and, in this case, me.”
Taking a closer look at the map on https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-8-1/ I think the southern port of Grimside is a port on Helm, not a departure point from this continent. Erin wanted to sail on the north side of the archipelago (that’s the string of islands between the two continents) to get to Hollowsong, but all the boats are taking the south side of the islands, which will take them to Grimside, which is farther away from the Soulshaper Monks. If there’s a more local boat that goes from Grimside to Hollowsong, this might only add a few days to their journey. If not, it could add a week or two through uninhabited territory. Either way, not insurmountable, so I expect Erin will eventually bow to the inevitable.
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: ask me how long it took to draw that city except don’t I’ll cry
Image source: argist
Tumblr text: Arc 1 properly begins!
Followed by: “Ah. That’s what I get for posting links first thing in the morning. This is in fact Arc 2.”
Twitter text: I know that narration!
I won’t ask how long it took, but one of these days we really need a ranking of all the “don’t ask me how long this took cause I’ll cry” and which ones took the longest.
We should send a request to that Indigo go get that data since she is OSP’s general tech expert and somewhat broadly managerical in OSP. She might be able to get a straight answer out of Red or at least be able to make a coherent translation for us. Indigo and Red could both object, in which case throw me under the bus and I will whimper piteously at them to save the rest of you from their righteous ire.
*applies hugs to Red* Hug-On! Apply directly to the Red! :3
Haa ships!
First incomic Gladestrider!
I hope we get to see the plant fairies next.
its really weird seeing erin look sad
his hubris usually protects him but not today ig
Hubris can’t stand in for hull durability
It can stand in for a tailwind though. Must be all that hot air.
CENTAUR SAILOR!
something something, horses, Poseidon…
I took them to be the harbormaster, or possibly a representative of a shipping company, that’s who Erin would have such a conversation with IRL, at least, in a less-medieval, more early-industrial society like Aurora.
Wait, what *is* the name of the civilization here? Or the greater region? I’m presuming that with so many isolated continents, there will be multiple different civilizations, at least since the deep caverns became impossible to traverse. Also because actual living gods are integrated into local governments… there don’t seem to be nation-states as we are familiar with them, except perhaps for city-states, but we haven’t yet met anyone who seems actually, you know, “foreign.”
It’s possible that, since most modern species first developed within the caves, and only emerged within recorded history, that all Aurora’s surviving civilizations have a common origin, and have not yet differentiated to the level we’re familiar with in the real world.
But didn’t the Twins make a ton of new species since then? I guess they might not have had time to create their own culture before joining the bigger already built society
If Zuurith is the city I think it is on Erin’s map in chapter 8, it’s been a pretty long time since then. Certainly a couple days (and given how long days can last in this comic, that’s a very long time).
How much time do you people think has passed?
It took the gang almost a week to reach Zuurith from Gleicann’s forest. I suspect it took a similar amount of time for the Floof Squad to reach Argist.
My boy Kendal is almost a month old !
Trading hub of the northern reaches,
Nestled in a natural harbour,
Artist, City of the Crow’s Head Plains,
Shines like beaten copper.
Erin, the Elemental Magus,
Seeks passage from there,
Though the icemelt keeps ships from calling,
In the Summer- turning weather.
As a long-time tabletop rpg referee, I love your city map and the geography of your world! I also love that the local climate is getting in the way of an easy sea voyage for the Floof Squad.
Eyyy! The Floof Squad’s back! Thank goodness, the lore was starting to burn a hole in my brain. Man, I’ve missed Erin and his narration.
Ah, for just one time
I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin
Reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line
Through a land so wild and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea
Stan Rogers’ song sung by male voices is very moving when listening to it, If you google it you can listen to it yourself (yes Stan Rogers Northwest Passage) very haunting and mournful.
I also agree with @Jaq that the city is beautifully drawn in wonderful detail and somewhere I would want go and see myself. So I think ii was time well spent Red!
I like Unleash The Archers’s version, link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRD3vrSLPaw&pp=ygUldW5sZWFzaCB0aGUgYXJjaGVycyBub3J0aHdlc3QgcGFzc2FnZQ%3D%3D
If you are not already aware of them, I would recommend The Longest Johns and El Pony Picador’s collaborations on the subject (under the delightful temporary name ‘The Longest Pony’ or otherwise.)
If you are already aware, that doesn’t make the song any less good. Go have a relisten.
Read my mind like an open book there. An excellent song by a legendary artist.
Neat detail that the urban sprawl stretches furthest inland along the rivers and roads! Also time for Erin to ply his trade as the nautical equivalent of a snowplow!
Oh no, a wide angle shot from the sky! Run, run while you can!
Calm down, it just a bird’s eye view of the city, my panicked observer. No Dragons, Chimera or hostile spirits seen yet! (Gives @NoName a virtual friendly pat on the shoulder and hope @NoName does not flinch in reaction)
Oh no, I’m not worried about flying critters. It’s the hand of the author that terrifies me! Both Vash and The Storm got ganked shortly after we got a birds eye view of them. ANd Vash specifically was an “ask me how long this took”, and got ganked with extreme prejudice
Well that’s more reasonable entirely! Buckle up for the ride Red is going to show us!
Ah, a city!
And it’s not apparently run by an immortal god-king interested in squeezing the freedom out of it’s inhabitants to ensure ‘peace’ and ‘stability’!
Can’t wait for it to go up in flames as well, it’s starting to be trend.
So far I think the party is 2 – 0 on “cities destroyed after protagonist appearance”, counting Vash that is. Not sure the villages/towns they met along the way count as “cities set on fire by proximity to party”.
You know, this reminds me of some of my pen and paper campaigns.
The actual city design is quite beautiful! Those piers look absolutely *massive*, if this is a city of 100k or so, which means it takes an extraordinary amount of shipping or extraordinarily large ships. Reminds me a bit of how Nochet in Glorantha (RuneQuest: Glorantha pen and paper rpg) has a single dock that used to be foor Dragonships, that is ships made out of the (still living????) bodies of dragons the size of islands or mountains. Well, before they either got stranded or dove into the Underworld (to escape all the seas being ‘closed’).
I think we probably won’t be here for long enough for the gang to destroy it. I’m thinking more the amount of interaction there was in Windcreast
I believe we skipped one city that was marked on Erin’s map, so they probably didn’t witness the destruction of that one.
Correct. We skipped Kev, which noticeably wasn’t circled like Zuurith, Argist, and Hollowsong, indicating it was just a minor stop. It probably escaped destruction by virtue of not being shown on page.
And while Windcrest wasn’t destroyed, it DID get it’s main source of income (wind from the Storm) removed, so I might argue the gang’s score is 2.5-0.5 for ‘cities destroyed’!
I’ll take note of this as well as Rai and ZeroWolf’s added note of Zev.
Current Floof Squad total is 2.5 to 1.5 if you count Windcrest losing it’s main original main source of income as enough to partially qualify.
Correlation does not equal causation, but there’s definitely what looks like a trend between screentime and cities destroyed…
The ratio of physical city size to population size depends quite a bit on density and architecture. One has to take into consideration how much space people in the society need to live versus what they are comfortable with, everyone’s relative wealth, and how much space is ostentatiously wasted by the elite, or needed for non-residential use.
Also things like how much space is practically available, how many stories structures can safely have, how important any city walls are, what building materials can be used… there are a *lot* of variables.
Certainly! Wasn’t talking about that though, it’s too difficult to judge the individual building size Vs likely inhabitants.
The piers were just very eye-catching, being in the center of the panel and look massive.
I’d imagine it’s just artistic license, which is fine, but got reminded of other worlds where gigantic ships are a thing and thus similarly gigantic harbours are required on occasion.
Icebergs! If only there were ~3 people here with fire magic to melt them and at least one person willing to punch the icebergs very hard
also I wonder if 100 000 is a large population in Aurora or not? Argist almost looks too normal to have a god, but maybe Vash and Zuurith are just very eccentric
Any large enough settlement would have a city god. A city god for Argist, one of the continent’s major trading hubs, is guaranteed.
And frankly, Argist also looks to be bigger than Vash (noted to be small, but with outsized influence) and Zuurith, so yeah, there is definitely a city god for Argist.
City gods don’t manifest based on eccentriCITY (wahey), they manifest based on cultural identity. Vash was famously eccentric, Zuurith was famously not. I’m sured Argist has a god too, but they hopefully won’t cause trouble.
I believe the ice melting IS the problem. The ice is melting too fast for the ships to overcome, even with a possible wind or water mage. What might’ve been a calm opening now looks like a torrential outpour. At least, it is a big contributing factor.
This gives me so mch Earthsea vibes!
Yess!! Another Earthsea fan! Glad to know you aren’t as far away as Selidor.
I have a feeling that Kendal and Ged-post-Wizard-of-Earthsea would get along really well. Just sit them on a cliff somewhere overlooking Gont and let them talk about things
While Ogion and Vash proudly watch them from the background.
Yes, that’s the feel of it — Earthsea. We need to get to Ged, please.
I don’t suppose there’s an iceberg god we can punch in the face to fix it?)
The port of Argist is where they’ll head out
But alas there are too many icebergs about
Thank you for the posts. This one is probably my favorite thus-far.
Thank you! Glad I could add something to your day.
I’m taking my time to admire the shiny city. Isn’t it weird that people can spend hours drawing something that only gets looked at for a few seconds?
Don’t worry, the number of times people will come back to this page will cause it to quickly rack up hours of appreciation.
I have spent many incredibly peaceful, calming hours drawing detailed maps of some of my fantasy towns and villages. Maps that will almost certainly not be useful for the finished product. But they ground me and center me.
This, however, is not a map, but a bird’s-eye perspective illustration that has to both be convincing and fit the style of a larger work. I can see why drawing it would stress Red out.
Okay, place your bets: How long until we end up hiring pirates, privateers, or smugglers to get us to Helm?
Up to 5 pages and I’m betting bout’ twenty monopoly money, my only 2 minecraft diamonds from my survival world, and a pack of my brother’s cheese It’s.
Obligatory SHIP TRIP
Response to alt text: Well at least it was probably easier then Alinua’s giant tree
If icebergs are a problem, Dainix and Erin could probably help.
I think the problem is the icebergs melting and causing tidal waves, which is something Erin could still help with
let’s go! it’s hubris mcsicktats narrating again! is it weird to say i kinda missed him doing that?
In this chapter of Aurora: The social and cultural effects of magic climate change
[it’s probably just season change, but I think that would be funny]
Golden!
Just have Alinua make a boat. Easy.
I mean, they still need to actually SAIL the boat. Tess is the only party member they have who might have anything approaching actual nautical skill, and she can’t exactly do everything by herself! Especially since, y’know, there’s a REASON boats are avoiding this route right now.
Oh my god the shapes on that city…. god that must have been a NIGHTMARE. But it looks absolutely gorgeous, you did well Red!! 😀 But… ouhhh.. why does Erin look so sad? I mean, yeah the icebergs… But it can’t just be that.. Void dragon, probably… Poor guy.
I like that we start the chapter from Erin’s POV this time. He’s had solo scenes and scenes where he’s the primary character involved, but this one comes across differently. I read the opening “voice over” as more pensive than his original “Ima walk into this storm because I’m the only one who can” introduction. Heck, when was the last time anyone gave internal narration? Either way, he’s finally developed into someone with (a little more) humility. He asks if he can help and doesn’t get visibly upset when he’s told “no”. They’ll figure out a way around the iceberg issue, of course, but I think his attitude may be different this time. (Then again, hubris, so I may be speaking too soon.) But our boy’s growing up!
Also, their version of traveling light: Erin’s bag of holding (so infinity packing), Dainix’s crossbow, spear, and gear, Vash’s sword, the capes/ponchos on their backs, and an extraordinary amount of floof.
Hi, it’s just me again, the guy who always advocates my headcanon that Erin’s hubris is actually mostly a learned behavior and not his natural state.
I concur
Last time we had internal narration was the end of Arc 1. https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-22-58/
Oh, we’re going somewhere called Grimside. That’s not a foreboding name.
Anonymous Aurora Question #38: 1: WHY DO I LOVE ERIN SO MUCH EVEN IF HE’S NOT DOING ANYTHING EXCEPTIONALLY COOL RIGHT NOW?!?! 2: Now that I regained my composure: What city do you think of when you think about a big city with a port? I just automatically end up thinking of Naples or Amsterdam.
Lübeck at peak Hansean League era. For fantasy settings like this one, it’s got the vibes. Then maybe Brügge. Basically, all the hansean port cities.
Tampa Bay or Sanfrancisco
The Roman Empire’s wide trading abilities have been drilled into me by S1 history essays, sooooo that 😀
I was like : *gasp* ships! Boats! Pirates! Vikings!
Slateport City and Castelia City.
here we fucking go arc 2 chapter 1
I may have been watching too much Sousou no Frieren recently, but we did just skip over a large swath of temperate planes and a city named Key. I had kind of been hoping that we would get to see the squad banter and bond and have a good, calm time together.
I haven’t written fanfiction in a long time, but it might be time to make my return if no one else will.
Have fun! The city is named “Kev,” by the way.
“Nestled in the harbor of the Crow’s-” NESTLED UPON THE CLIFFS THAT RISE FROM THE SWORD COAST, THE CITADEL OF CANDLEKEEP HOUSES THE FINEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE COLLECTION ON THE FACE OF FAERUN
Ah, global warming and seasonal weather change. Another enemy of the Floof Squad
Hate to break it to the “hit it with fire” folks, but anyone who could melt an iceberg fast enough to matter could almost certainly have just evaporated Tynan right out of existence…
Q38: Boston. Mostly because I spent way, way too many hours working on bathmetry data for its harbor and integrating it with LIDAR-based DEM datasets for the city.
Time to guess! What do you think will happen next!
A. They pay pirates to take them
B. They get in a pirate ship battle
C. The ship they take gets raided by pirates
D. They take a detour to the other port
E. They take the only boat that will go that way and end up castaways
F. They end up hijacking whatever boat they end up taking
G. They steal a boat from someone and become fugitives
H. They help anouther floof with sailing skills get their boat back from pirates and they agree to take them to Helm
I. Chimera Mom shows up
J. VD makes his appearance of the town
K. A Deus Ex Machina
L. A literal Deus Ex Machina
M. Paladens attack
N. Erin, in his hubris and or ego, freezes the ocean so people can cross
O. They punch a god in the face
P. They somehow end up on the run from the government for the most stupid reasons
Adding Q. They purchase a hotel room and wait out the season
option N which leads to either P or J.
R. all of the above
S. Erin uses water magic to ward off icebergs, but then has to go the entire trip without sleeping or they’ll get wrecked.
Erin has pretty shocked face, and if it’s seasonal change that is causing the melting, I think Erin would know about it, so unless he is shocked at how long it’s taken to get here, I think that something else is going on. My guesses are that the jokes about global warming are correct, maybe a god is behind this that they can punch. Or, maybe his face has nothing to do with this news. Maybe VD is getting squirmy, or he spotted a dragon approaching, or he has seen a squadron of paladens approaching. IDK, something is going on here beyond seasonal change.
That’s not surprise, it looks more like resignation, as in “I knew this might happen but I still hoped it wouldn’t”
Hello
Erin thinks in slightly newer paper today, and we get to see a centaur. Now the question is if that is it’s own thing, or a ferrin variant.
It’s a Gladestrider, I think! They’re kinda centaurs but they have more lower body options than just horse
I don’t think it’s newer paper, it’s just paper that isn’t wet. the stuff he used in the storm matches this.
nooo I can’t believe I caught up to the comic once again
The fact that we don’t see Erin physically writing anywhere here opens up the tantalising possibility that he’s just been internally monologuing diary entries THIS WHOLE TIME like he’s planning his autobiography or something. Why does his mind work this way. Real Veronica Sawyer behaviour.
“On the corner between Main and Maple rests the Select Convenience corner store, easily identifiable by the faded sign behind the rain-streaked glass and the steady traffic of people in and out. It provides a vital role in the neighbourhood, supplying locals with bread, milk, newspapers, and the other necessities of everyday life. Locals and, in this case, me.”
it’s so shiny
i want to eat it
Taking a closer look at the map on https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-8-1/ I think the southern port of Grimside is a port on Helm, not a departure point from this continent. Erin wanted to sail on the north side of the archipelago (that’s the string of islands between the two continents) to get to Hollowsong, but all the boats are taking the south side of the islands, which will take them to Grimside, which is farther away from the Soulshaper Monks. If there’s a more local boat that goes from Grimside to Hollowsong, this might only add a few days to their journey. If not, it could add a week or two through uninhabited territory. Either way, not insurmountable, so I expect Erin will eventually bow to the inevitable.
Welp. I think our crew is going to have to get their own boat.
“and on occasion, me”. I love how dramatic Erin is lol.
TL;DR: The return of the notebook excerpts!
Sorry for being late, I was sick and catching up on college work.